Typical Apple. Reminds me of the AirPods Max "update" (yes, in quotation marks since it wasn't a real update - just USB-C and new colours). Wouldn't be surprised if they did what you just said.
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New HomePod Mini Finally Expected This Year Following 2020 Launch
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Good point. HomePod mini Ultra here we come.
Move 2 battery life is phenomenal brilliant speaker as well
I’m going to get my hopes up the tiniest little bit and take this as a sign that server side Siri improvements are coming for everyone.
No it’s not. It is working for me.
Same experience here. HomePod Mini are working fine for me, and it will be difficult to justify an “upgrade”.
AirPods Max… something doesn’t even exist.
With the DeepSeek hype today - if true - that bodes well for Apple since they'll be able to run much more on device vs having server farms. Maybe even the new (after this rumored one) version of the mini in 2029. Who knows if it will improve Siri though. lol
Nope. I use Siri many times a day. It just works.
Apparently they’ve sent the John Wick of Apple Park to the Siri division, so let’s hope.
If successful, I hope they send her to Alan Dye’s office next for a serious heart to heart about notifications.
the bigger one makes for good audio if you have an Apple TV, but yeah Siri is an embarrassment
I don't think that a FM tuner was ever on the table for the HomePod...Bluetooth and FM tuner support should’ve been in the first revision.
Removable power cable and battery operated would’ve been ideal.
Apple needs to take it to a whole new level and integrate all voice assistance software in this device in order to bring in the Amazon and Google people.
I would be interested in one of these if it sat on a little dock and was battery powered so I could take it around the house in different places
On-device Siri for HomePods would be the one feature that would get me to upgrade.
What I would like to see is my M4 MBP remember my HomePod mini speakers so I don't have to manually select them every time I use my computer. Apple needs to get their act together on this.
"It comes in eight beauuuutifulll new colors...."
Took some time to quiet Siri on my Hompods & the mini's, even though I have turned Siri off evereywhere.
But I have a good place now for both my Homepods, an the mini's, high up on a bookshell where I don't accidentally touch them. The speakers are pretty ok in itself. If Apple gave the customer a more reliable choice in how to use them I would've bought more.
But there's other brands out there for speakers - without Siri - so sorry Apple, I won't buy more of them.
Maybe I don't understand (ESL) your point, but
AirPods Max
The ultimate over-ear personal listening experience — in five fresh colors and fast charging with USB-C.
www.apple.com
If the sound profile is different at all due to hardware changes, you can be pretty sure they won’t pair, because typically people don’t pair different speakers in a stereo setup. If it’s just updated chips, they should have a decent chance of pairing.
It is wireless (WiFi/AirPlay). It is not cordless (portable).
I am happy for you--glad Siri enriches your life. Thus far Siri--via one HomePod and four HomePod Minis--still provides more benefit than frustration for us over the past four years, but as time has gone on that balance has swung farther and farther towards frustration. We experience:
- Intermittent failure to acknowledge a command
- Acknowledging a command on a HomePod Mini that is far away, e.g. 20 feet away and on the other side of a wall, instead of a HomePod 2-3 feet away.
- Misunderstanding requests
Give me a HomePod mini that acts as a mesh wifi router that can connect to other HomePods that do the same.
Give me a MagSafe connector on the top that lets me attach an arm to connect to an iPad that acts like a home base station reminiscent of the old lamp iMacs.
Give me a MagSafe connector on the top that lets me attach an arm to connect to an iPad that acts like a home base station reminiscent of the old lamp iMacs.
Mac Mini is small but isn’t portable/doesn’t have a battery. 🤷♂️
The HomePod Mini isn’t small to be portable, it’s small to be a cheaper and less visually and spatially intrusive option to the larger HomePod. Same reason the Mac Mini is small—hence the names, they’re just the “mini” version of the bigger version.
The question is whether it makes sense to make it portable given the technical limitations. AirPlay and standalone internet-streaming and always-listening Siri and audio adjustment take up a good amount of energy. I don’t think a small device would last long enough on battery to be practical. It would probably have to be more the size of the Sonos Move, which is bigger and heavier. I could be wrong but I don’t know of anything similar that is small like the Mini. If there isn’t, then it’s probably actually because it’s small that the Mini isn’t portable.
Also acoustically transparent fabric isn’t the most durable material for a portable speaker. So they’d need to make some major design changes to make it a portable speaker. And at that point it would no longer be a HomePod Mini.
One of the worst products Apple has ever made. The sound quality is terrible. I know because I had two of them.